If there is one thing that I regret, it would be my failure to explore Yongkang Street while in Taipei. I cannot believe that I was not able to find time for Taipei cuisine’s mecca and home to the original Din Tai Fung! Yongkang Street is where you can find restaurants and cafes during the day and market carts and independent sellers at night. It’s where you can find any type of food be it Chinese, Korean, American, Italian, Japanese, and others. Next time, I will definitely devote time for Yongkang Street in addition to Raohe Night Market, Wufenpu, and a hot springs resort. Next time, next time.

On our last day in Taipei, we decided to eat at Din Tai Fung but changed our hearts almost instantaneously when we saw the queue. The good thing is that right next door is its long overshadowed competitor that we discovered to concoct equally amazing dishes or maybe even better. I was told that locals impress tourists by bringing them to Din Tai Fung while locals impress fellow locals by going to this restaurant. The name, my friends, is Kao Chi.

This is not to contest Din Tai Fung’s dishes or its being famous. Din Tai Fung is Din Tai Fung and I love their food too. I don’t even want to compare Din Tai Fung with Kao Chi or vice versa but what I want to say is that I never felt like we missed out on lot of things when we went for Kao Chi than the original Din Tai Fung. We were more than satisfied with the food, extensiveness of the menu, quick wait time, quick service, and for some of us who have tried Din Tai Fung elsewhere, we noted that the dishes were just as good.

Generous serving of shrimp fried rice

Spinach and tofu soup

Shrimp dumplings

Xiao long baos that are not piping hot such that we were able to enjoy them as soon as they were served.